Pirate Bay moves into 3D object copying

The Pirate Bay has begun hosting schematic files for three-dimensional objects, the notorious file-sharing service said on Monday.The Pirate Bay (TPB) is best known for hosting torrent files that help people unlawfully share music and video, but the organisation said in a blog post that it was also looking to the future of 3D printing.

"We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form," the post read. "It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical."

3D printers use a layering process to create three-dimensional objects that are often impossible to create in any other way. They usually print with some type of plastic.

The technology is broadly known as 'rapid prototyping'. It was once the preserve of product design and architectural firms, but costs are coming down. A pre-assembled MakerBot Replicator costs around £1,250, while homebrew projects such as RepRap allow people to make their own 3D printers for less.

TPB suggested that 3D printers and scanners were "just the first step", and "in the nearby future you will print your spare parts for your vehicles".

"You will download your sneakers within 20 years," the post claimed, adding that food might somehow also be printed in the future. "We believe that the future of sharing is about physible data. We're thinking of temporarily renaming ourselves to The Product Bay."

At the time of writing there were seven designs in TPB's 'Physibles' category, including a pirate ship, a whistle and a 3D image of one of TPB's arch-nemeses, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chief Chris Dodd.